Observations of a Dreamer
by MouseMaster42
Summary: Oneshot; Angeline Fowl wakes up in the middle of the night and discovers that Artemis is still awake as well. Just a random idea I had awhile ago.


**Just a random idea I had awhile ago and decided to actually sit down and write yesterday.** **It's set in-between the 5****th**** and 6****th**** books (Lost Colony and Time Paradox). **

**Disclaimer: Artemis Fowl and co. all belong to Eoin Colfer. **

**Please read, enjoy, and then review. :)**

**xXx**

The phone rang.

Mr. and Mrs. Fowl tried to ignore it, but it continued to ring regardless, and once they were aware of its insistent ringing, they could do little to do away with the annoying noise. After a brief squabble over who would leave the warm confines of the bed to go answer it, Angeline Fowl grumpily left the bedroom and wandered out into the hallway.

"Hello?" she said vaguely when she hit the 'accept call' button.

"…"

"Hello?" she tried again. Then, growing peeved; "This had better not be a prank. You do know who you've called, don't you?"

"…"

"…" Angeline Fowl was, as her husband would surely tell you, well experienced in silence. She could even make her oldest son spill his dirty little secrets by giving him her trademark look and not speaking a word. Granted, because she was on the phone, her look could not be employed, but the silence proved to be enough.

After a few seconds, the person on the other line muttered "wrong number" and quickly hung up.

"Dubliner," Angeline said wisely, rolling her eyes and preparing to go back to her warm bed. On her way back, however, she couldn't resist looking in on her three boys. She peeked into Beckett's room first, smiling when she saw the angelic boy curled up with his teddy bear, who Artemis had sarcastically dubbed Roosevelt one morning at breakfast, only Beckett decided that the name was too long and had called the bear 'Roos' ever since, despite Artemis Junior's protests that that defeated the whole purpose of naming it Roosevelt in the first place.

Smiling at the memory (one of the few times her eldest son had actually been present for breakfast; he had a habit of eating much earlier than the rest of them and then disappearing for the rest of the day with Butler), Angeline closed the door and moved onto the next one. Myles was sprawled across his mattress, his blankets kicked off of him in a bad dream that had obviously passed, for Myles was sleeping silently now. His stuffed animal, Professor Primate, was lying on a shelf above his bed. Myles had long since stopped sleeping with it.

Concerned that he might catch cold, Angeline pulled the blankets up around her child's chin, tucking them around his shoulders. He sighed in his sleep and half-woke up, rubbing at his eyes.

"Mum…?" he asked blearily.

"It's alright," Mrs. Fowl said. "Go back to sleep."

Myles mumbled something and turned over, already immersed in another dream.

That left one more.

Mrs. Fowl gathered her nightgown a little closer around her ankles and walked down the rest of the hallway, stopping at the last room at the very end, which, when the sun was shining, had a lovely view of the garden that Artemis Junior didn't seem to use often enough. He was hardly ever in the room itself; he preferred to do his work in his study or in the library, not his bedroom.

Yet now, at this late hour, there was a light shining out from underneath his door.

"Arty?" Mrs. Fowl asked as she eased the door open, not surprised when it didn't make any sound (Butler always did his job well). "Why are you still awake?"

Her eyes first fell on his bed, which was still made.

"Honestly, Arty, it's almost two in the morning," she said as she registered the light music coming from Artemis's stereo. It sounded like the end of one of Beethoven's symphonies. It was so quiet, she could hardly tell. Confused, Angeline looked towards Artemis's window with the lovely view,—which currently had dark curtains pulled over it, shielding the room from the full moon's bright light—wondering where the boy could have gotten. Had he snuck out again?

Then turned her eyes towards his armchair, and she found him.

Artemis Fowl II was sprawled in the comfortable chair that he had stolen from his father several years before; book held in a slackened hand, eyes closed, dark hair falling in his face. Asleep.

Mrs. Fowl couldn't help smiling as she took in her eldest son's face, which (for once) was erased of all worries. He really didn't look seventeen, he looked closer to fourteen. But that was ridiculous, he was seventeen. There was no getting around that fact; Angeline just had to accept that her boy had grown up.

Curious, she snuck a peek at the book that he was reading. It wasn't a textbook, as she had expected, but a fiction novel. Not exactly Artemis's usual type. It was the _Princess Bride_, a book that Artemis Senior had read to his son when Artemis was…Angeline cast her mind back, and decided that Artemis was probably around six or seven. But her husband had greatly edited, so when Artemis had actually gotten his hands on the original S. Morgenstern version, he decided that he didn't like it much after all and preferred the way his father had read it. The book in his hands now was different though; it was some form of abridged version.

Resolving to ask him about it later, Angeline started debating the best way to get her son into bed. He would have a terrible time waking up if he slept in the chair all night like that.

She pulled her nightgown closer to her again, resigned to the fact that Fowl Manor was doomed to be eternally cold, despite the fact that they had one of the most efficient and most expensive furnaces in all of Ireland. The song on Artemis's stereo ran out, and a new one started. Once again, Angeline was surprised by her son's music choice; it was a song by an American band. There was much Artemis hadn't told them, apparently.

Tentatively, she touched Artemis's shoulder. "Arty…?"

His eyes flickered behind his eyelids as he saw something that only he could. His lips opened slightly, and he sighed a single word, his voice strangely gentle as he spoke to whoever he dreamed of.

The word was _'Holly.'_

Very confused now, Angeline shook his shoulder a little harder. "Come; wake up."

Artemis Junior's eyes suddenly flew open and he came crashing back to reality with a small yelp. While his mother saw his mismatched eyes, she sort of glazed over that fact, barely recognizing it at all. Her son's eyes were blue. They always had been. Like Tim's.

"…Mother?" he asked after a moment to get his bearings. "What…? I don't…"

"You fell asleep," Angeline said, taking his elbow and helping him out of the chair; leading him towards the bed. "What were you reading?"

Artemis broke off his mother's hold, walking sleepily over to the stereo to shut it off. A long silence filled the cold room, and Angeline secretly vowed to drag the electrical man up to the manor again to make sure that the heated floors were working as they should.

"I was reading a book Father read to me when I was younger," Artemis explained. "I suppose I just lost track of time. Why are you still up and about, Mother?"

"A phone call," Mrs. Fowl said, rolling her eyes. "Come, Arty. Into bed. You might almost be an adult, but that does not give you the right to stay up all night."

For some reason, a guilty look passed over her eldest son's face for a moment as he pulled off his tie and threw it into the closet. When he turned around to look at his mother again, the look was gone.

There was another awkward silence, Artemis unwilling to climb into bed while his mother was watching, lest she try something odd (like trying to tuck him in or something equally humiliating), and his mother unwilling to leave until she knew that he was going to sleep, and not continuing to read.

"Well…" Artemis finally said. "You should probably go back to bed. I am fine."

Angeline consented with a light smile. "Just get to sleep soon, alright? Remember, you promised to baby-sit the twins while your father and I go out tomorrow."

"I remember," Artemis confirmed. "Now to bed." He shooed his mother from his room, closing the door behind her.

"Goodnight, Arty," she whispered through the door.

"_Goodnight,_ Mother," Artemis said pointedly, still holding onto the door handle in case she tried to force entry again.

He listened through the wood until he heard her light steps retrace their way back to her bedchambers, then reached back over to the chair for where he had dropped his bookmark. He flicked off the reading lamp and felt his way back over to the stereo, turning the music on louder than it had been before.

Then and only then did he collapse, exhausted, onto the bed covers. He had hoped that the combination of lack of sleep and the music in the background would be enough to drive out the voices that had been plaguing him since the moon had turned full two nights ago. They were still there, but now he could blot them out.

With that, Artemis Fowl the second sank into a guilty sleep. He would have to tell his parents someday.

_But not tonight,_ he told himself. Tonight I just need sleep. I will deal with it all in the morning.

And then…_I hope I didn't say anything embarrassing before Mother woke me. I had been having the most wonderful dream…_

Fin.

**Yes, I know it's fluff, but it was fun to write. Please review to tell me what you think!**


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